


Small Packages

by Sanjuno



Series: Names of Power [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Also because Cid yelled at them for being stupid, Avalanche adopting clones, Because they do what they want, Cid yells at a lot of people, Clones, Hojo is why Gaia can't have nice things, I have plans for the Remnant Trio don't you worry, In fact all of the Kingdom Hearts characters are clones or products of mad science, Kidding I love it really, Multi, Riku is a clone of Sephiroth, The mad science doesn't get much screen time, Why so many characters?, Yes because OC's give me hives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-04-30 23:59:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5184620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanjuno/pseuds/Sanjuno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanks to an impromptu dip in the Lifestream during a visit to Mideel, Cid and his crew have been acting strangely. The discovery of more of Hojo’s secret labs leads to Avalanche going investigating with ShinRa. Then Cid finds something interesting and proceeds to adopt him. That’s when things get really weird as the instincts of a long forgotten race decides to wake up and make life really interesting for Avalanche.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Just Keep Swimming

The last few months had been peaceful for the members of Avalanche and the rest of the Planet. The population was well on its way to full recovery over the Geostigma plague, thanks to the healing rain Cloud had informed them was sent by Aeris. In addition, most of the damage caused by the REMNANT Trio had been repaired.  
  
Cid was chewing meditatively on a toothpick as he watched his crew unloading the cargo from the Highwind II. He really wanted a cigarette, but he was a) trying to cut back, b) in Mideel, and c) not stupid enough to risk lighting up so close to the exposed Lifestream and all the gently steaming mako pools scattered around.  
  
They had landed outside of the town proper, tethered the airship to a stable section of earth, and started unloading SHIN-RA and WRO scientists, along with a bevy of accompanying monitoring equipment and various other less recognizable devices and electronics. Reeve and Rufus had come to an agreement in the wake of the latest Jenova uprising, and a large part of that was furthering their understanding of the Lifestream and the Planet itself. Mideel was the last stop in a chain of drop-offs that had included Cosmo Canyon, North Crater, Midgar, Nibelheim, and one of the more isolated Leviathan temples in Wutai.  
  
“Whoa! Easy, dumbshit!” Cid shouted, steadying a crewman as he stumbled on a loose rock, knocking into Cid and pushing them both into a stumble.  
  
“Sorry Captain!” The crewman gasped, glancing at the edge of the Lifestream pool laying less than a step away from them then back at this fuming superior.  
  
“Just get goin’, ya idiot.” Cid grumbled, cuffing the crewman on the shoulder. “And watch where yer fucking goin’ next time!”  
  
“Yes sir!”  
  
Cid snorted and shook his head as his employee scurried off. The rest of his men – and women, Cid did not discriminate – were all suddenly paying much more attention to where they put their feet. Speaking of feet, Cid glanced down and grimaced at how close he had come to an unwanted, ill-advised swim. The edge of the Lifestream was less than a foot from his heel. Cid growled and stomped off to find someone he could yell at until the prickly feeling of the adrenaline rush raising the hairs on the back of his neck went away.  
  
He managed to get one step.  
  
Then Cid felt the ground crumble and give way under his sturdy work boots, his foot sinking in up to his knee. The flash fire sting and burn of mako sinking through cloth and saturating his flesh made him bellow an incoherent warning to the rest of the crew. Just as he finished shouting the section of the bank he was stuck in sank, expanding the exposed Lifestream by several square meters. Cid was sucked under with the dirt, only one thought running through his mind.  
  
 _‘Fuckin’ **typical**.’_  
  
=/=

Cid’s thoughts were a whirl of profanity as he was dragged down, arms thrashing in a futile attempt to return to the surface. But the Lifestream pulled at him, held him under as it seeped into his mouth, his ears, nose and eyes. Pinpricks and a not-quite-painful burn on his skin, the green stuff had even infiltrated his boots. Venus Gospel was a brand against his back, glowing bright as star-fire, bright enough that Cid was forced to squint, eyes opened because keeping them closed made no difference. Maybe with his eyes open he could see a way out.  
  
**_Pressure. Curiosity? Glee! Purpose._**  
  
… What the hell? He had better not be going loopy as Cloud, because otherwise Cid Highwind was going to get cranky.  
  
**_Purpose. Rebirth. Thunder of great wings. Burn of Wildfire. Purpose. Returning from the Source._**  
  
Okay. That had made _no_ sense to him at _all_.  
  
**_Purpose. Burn away dead wood. Bodies running hot to kill infection. Press of hot metal to seal a wound. Purpose. Resurrection. The sweep of wings._**  
  
Feed a fever, starve a cold. Right. What did this have to do with him?  
  
**_Ride the Wind. Dance in the Sky. Armoured grace. Seek the edge of the Horizon. Freedom from the Shell. Return. Rebirth. Protection. Purpose. Guidance._**  
  
_‘What? I don’t… shouldn’t this be Cloud’s job?’_ Cid thought blurrily. The kid was _used_ to the crazy talking nonsensical green stuff. Cid preferred math and physics to metaphors and abstract concepts, even if he was a dreamer at heart.  
  
**_Purpose. Return. Flight. Fire. Birth of a Storm. Purpose._**  
  
Okay, he got the picture. The Planet had some sort of job for the amazing Captain Cid Highwind. Now what?  
  
**_Return from the Source. Lift on the Wind. A widening gyre. Stooping. A swift strike._**  
  
_… Huh?_  
  
A gold claw grabbed Cid’s jacket, and he tilted his head back, blinking at Vincent – wait, not Vincent, Chaos – his mind was hazy. His thoughts were unusually slow, his perceptions muffled. A tiny corner of his mind noting that the sensation hovering around the edges of his senses was pain. A whole hell of a lot of it. That was going to sting a bit once his head cleared out the cotton it was stuffed with.  
  
Vincent – Chaos hauled Cid up, into his arms. Then higher still, up, out of the green and the glow and into the open sky.  
  
Cid tilted his head back and grinned a stupid grin, light on his face and wind through his hair sending joy singing through him. Activity whirled around them when Chaos landed and Cid felt the approaching pain. He prudently let the black roll over him, but not before speaking his mind over the whole thing.  
  
“Fucking _crazy_ ass Planet.” Then blue eyes rolled up and Cid Highwind mercifully passed out.  
  
=/=

“FUCKING GET OFF!”

Reno looked up from an intent (if horribly bored) inspection of his cuticles at the screamed curse. He exchanged a curious look with Rude. The Turks as a whole had received a crash course in what the airship crew had termed ‘Surviving Captain Highwind 101’ over the last few months, and getting used to the high decibel profanity had been the least of it.  
  
That shout had not sounded like a normal Cid Highwind version of encouragement.  
  
That shout had sounded like panic.  
  
Reno and Rude headed around the bulk of the parked airship for the cargo ramp where Cid had been overseeing the unloading.  
  
The red and black blur of Vincent Valentine shot past them, and the Turks broke into a full run without a word exchanged. They arrived at the scene just in time to see a large swath of the bank sink into the Lifestream, carrying a very pissed off looking Captain Highwind down with it.  
  
“Well, shit.” Reno said blankly. “How’re we supposed to get him out without getting trapped ourselves, yo?”  
  
“Rope?” Rude suggested with a shrug.  
  
Vincent Valentine skidded to a stop a few feet from the newly formed edge, stripped off his cloak and headband, dumped his guns on top of the pile of red fabric and seconds later had dove headfirst into the Lifestream.  
  
“Or we can dive right in, yo.” Reno muttered, shaking his head over the crazy freaks of Avalanche.  
  
The seconds passed like hours, the crew of the airship gathered and tense, having dropped their cargo and bolted towards their Captain’s side – or as close to it at they could get under the present circumstances. They held their breath – or hyperventilated in some cases – eyes wide and fixed with desperate intensity on the disturbed ripples on the surface of the Lifestream.  
  
They waited.  
  
The ripples calmed, smoothed out.  
  
They waited. Some straining forward, shifting onto the balls of their feet, and Reno figured Valentine had only a few more moments before Cid’s crew jumped in after the old cuss.  
  
They waited.  
  
The pool was calm.  
  
Chaos burst out of the Lifestream, shedding the clinging glow in large streaming splatters as he winged his way over the gathered crowd to stable ground.  
  
The crowd roared, a sudden explosion of sound that made Reno start and Rude shift on his feet, glancing to the side. The crew was a sudden boil of activity, a stretcher and blankets appearing as two men went pelting away towards the town proper. Cid’s co-pilot, a man known only as Junior, clapped Chaos on the shoulder, beaming as he said something about ‘nice work’.  
  
Reno waited for the screaming to start, certain the idiot was about to die. But Chaos just nodded, wings already melting away, horns shrinking and hair darkening back to black. By the time the two Turks assigned to the _Highwind II_ made it through the gleeful, congratulatory crowd, Vincent was back to normal. Except for the unusually bright blaze of summons-red eyes.  
  
One of the crewmen dropped Vincent’s gear next to the gunman as a woman in a bridge crew jacket handed him a towel. She wiped her cheek with the heel of her hand, getting rid of the wetness along her cheekbone. Junior rubbed a damp palm on his jeans.  
  
Reno frowned, sharp eyes narrowing as he looked around. He and Rude had stayed well back, wary of the ledge crumbling further. Still, Rude had a glowing streak of green slowly trailing down the back of his shaved head, and Reno looked down at himself, scowling at the drops on green on his chest. Cid’s crew stood only a bare few meters back, and Chaos had flown right over them, huge wings scattering Lifestream drops like rain.  
  
Mentally, Reno cursed. If it had happened to _anyone_ else he would have thought nothing of it, just a freak accident, nothing to worry about. But Avalanche did not _do_ coincidence. Something was going to come of this.  
  
Reno only wished that he knew _what._  
  



	2. The Cid Highwind Guide To Making Friends And Gaining Influence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mad Scientists are a bit like squirrels. Vicious, secretive, and with a tendency to hoard their shit all over the place. Usually in the walls where you don't notice anything until it starts to smell.

“Get to Midgar, we have a situation.” Reeve’s voice had been grim, the message left on a number of cell phone’s bringing the members of Avalanche running to the remains of Midgar from wherever they had settled into their peacetime lives.  
  
Cid was the last to arrive, bringing in Yuffie from Wutai and Vincent from wherever it was the ex-Turk had hidden himself away this time. There was no way to know what was wrong, but Avalanche knew each other, had fought together for too long for the undercurrents in Reeve’s voice to go unnoticed.  
  
A dark suited, nameless low-level Turk led Vincent, Cid and Yuffie to the meeting room. It was no surprise to see Rufus and the main Turks already present. It _was_ of some surprise to be told that it was not likely that they would be staying overlong in the executive boardroom Rufus had lent them for the meeting.  
  
“So what new crisis do we get to save the Planet from today?” Cid drawled as he grabbed a seat and sat down.  
  
Rufus and Reeve exchanged a look.  
  
“That’s as good a place to start from as any.” Reeve sighed, handing out a stack of file folders. Avalanche took theirs with various levels of amusement. Yuffie took two, one for herself and one for Nanaki.  
  
“What’s this about?” Tifa asked, eyebrows shooting up into her hairline as she opened the folder and scanned the contents.  
  
“Medical reports?” Nanaki questioned, looking at the vaguely familiar forms and charts recognizable from his time in Hojo’s lab.  
  
“Yes and no.” Rufus replied as he pulled out a map and spread it across the table. “Many of them were originally coded, but we managed to decrypt most of them. From what we can understand from them, we have uncovered the locations of at least three secret labs like the one Hojo maintained in Nibelheim.”  
  
“You mean he had more than one secret, hidden, mad scientist look-at-me-I-have-surpassed-the-Gods-I’m-such-a-genius-mwahaha lab?” Yuffie asked in an appalled screech, ignoring the stricken, respectful silences most of her teammates had fallen into.  
  
“So he had other labs?” Cid asked in the wake of Yuffie’s question. “And SHIN-RA didn’t know about these before now?”  
  
“You are unfortunately correct, Captain.” Rufus said with a grimace, choosing to ignore Yuffie’s less than tactful contribution. “My father knew about Nibelheim, naturally, but pretended not to. For plausible deniability, his own peace of mind, who knows the real reasons why my father did anything? But these labs are completely unknown to me – and no mention of them were in my father’s private files.”  
  
“We think that the one closest to Icicle is where he made the REMNANTS we fought last year.” Reeve said, gesturing to the map. “Perhaps even where the Geostigma plague was developed, we still haven’t entirely finished decoding everything. We were hoping that Yuffie could convince Godo to lend us a hand with the one we found in Wutai.”  
  
“I’ll talk to the old man.” Yuffie declared during Reeve’s expectant pause. “He’ll cooperate if he knows what’s good for him!”  
  
“Thank you Yuffie.” Reeve smiled briefly before pointing again at the map. “It’s actually this one that concerns us the most. Due to proximity if nothing else.”  
  
“He had another lab in the Nibel Mountains?” Tifa asked, horrified.  
  
“Awfully damned close to Rocket Town too.” Cid said grimly, eyeing the map. “Damn. We must’ve passed right by the fuckin’ thing near a dozen times over the past few years, and never once noticed it.”  
  
“Probably why they call it a _secret_ lab, old timer!” Yuffie needled.  
  
“Shut up brat!” Cid grumped, swatting her over the back of the head and ignoring her outraged yelp. “Still can’t believe we missed even one of that damn bastard Hojo’s labs, after all the running around the whole fuckin’ Planet we’ve done because of him.”  
  
“Be that as it may, we still need to investigate.” Reeve said, trying to keep the conversation on track.  
  
“How soon can we leave?” Cloud asked suddenly, the first time he had spoken throughout the whole conversation. His mako eyes locked on the small inked dot that marked the second lab in the Nibel mountain range.  
  
“I had a feeling you’d want to leave sooner rather than later.” Reeve smiled, gathering up his papers and the map. “If Captain Highwind will oblige us with a ride, we have a team prepared and on standby. If we leave for Rocket Town tonight on the airship we can set out into the mountains first thing in the morning.”  
  
“Sounds like a plan ta me.” Cid said, nodding at Reeve and looking at the others. “How soon kin everyone be ready to leave? I know the brat and Vince are already good to go, all their stuff is on my ship already, but what about the rest a ya?”  
  
“Give me three hours to close the bar and get the kids to Elmyra’s.” Tifa said, glancing at the again-silent Cloud worriedly.  
  
“Yeah.” A thus-far silent Barret said. “I need to say goodbye to Marlene before we leave.”  
  
“Alright then.” Cid clapped his hands down on the tabletop and stood, tucking his copy of the file under one arm. “I’ll go prep the _Highwind_. But I’ll warn ya’ll now. If this gets my airship trashed _again_ I’ll be makin’ ya’ll pay for it!”  
  
“We reconvene at the airfield in three hours.” Cloud said, his voice that of the leader they had all followed during the METEOR crisis. “Get your weapons and Materia ready, we don’t know what sort of surprises Hojo left behind for us this time. I want you all loaded and ready for anything from Chocobo’s to Jenova herself. Got it?”  
  
Cloud glanced around the room as his teammates all gave him affirmatives.  
  
“Well then, people.” Cloud’s mouth quirked in an odd smile. “Let’s mosey.”  
  
Rufus and the Turks blinked, Avalanche moseyed, and Cid bitched about ‘fuckin’ pansy asses that used the word ‘mosey’ without spontaneously combusting from the shame’.  
  
=/=

“Man, old Hojo sure had a trap fetish, yo.” Reno grinned at Rude as the two Turks disarmed and hacked the door they had found hidden behind a set of filing cabinets.  
  
“Bets on the horrible monster he has hidden in this room?” Reno wondered out loud, looking absurdly cheerful as he began listing ‘nasty things hidden behind door number two’.  
  
Rude said nothing, but Reno was used to that and the mindless babble continued undeterred.  
  
At least until Reno got a good look at what was actually kept in the hidden room.  
  
“Shiva’s frosted nip-ons.” Reno finally managed to force out.   
  
Rude shook his head and pulled out his radio. Very calmly pressing the ‘talk’ button, Rude spoke levelly into the mike. “We’ve found something.”  
  
=/=

Cid, having been leading a team searching the far side of the lab complex, was the last Avalanche member to arrive at the scene. He walked right into the middle of an argument. Tifa was ranting, Barrett was shouting, Yuffie was screeching and Cloud was huddled up in a corner muttering to the voices in his head.   
  
Cid paused in the doorway to take it all in.   
  
Rufus and the Turks were standing off to one side, eyeing Avalanche with expressions that clearly asked the question of ‘ _these_ nut jobs are the ones who keep saving the planet?’ plastered on their faces. Red XII was trying – unsuccessfully – to calm Yuffie down. Reeve had buried his face in his hands – probably wishing that he had just used Cait Sith instead of coming in person – and Vincent was a big brooding shadow sulking next to the door, staring at the far wall with his ‘I-must-be-punished-for-my-sins’ face on.   
  
Cid spared a second to listen to the gabble going on in the middle of the room.   
  
The main gist of it seemed to be that ‘Sephiroth was a demonic, mis-spawned, alien-fucking bastard who did not have the common decency to stay dead once killed and that damned twisted son-of-a-mange-ridden-tonberry Hojo should rot in hell for making so many blasted copies of him.  
  
Cid eyeballed the room as he made his way over to where Reeve was slumped resignedly against the one-way mirror-window, which made up the far wall. The room on the other side of the glass was filled with fiddly scientific devices, monitors, control panels, and an even-dozen mako tubes. Much like the ones they had found in the Nibelheim Mansion lab. The computer banks were a bit dusty but still functional, so the lab’s generators were either well maintained or there was a mainline tap somewhere. And of the twelve mako tubes in the other room, seven showed signs of recent use.  
  
“Damn.” Cid muttered, peering through the glass. Reeve glanced at him and Cid returned the look. “So ya have any idea what we’ve got here?”  
  
Reeve shrugged in response to the quite question, sitting at one of the computers. Both men calmly ignored the drama of their teammates with the ease of long practice. Reeve spent a few minutes fiddling with the computer terminal before he looked back up at Cid.  
  
“From the looks of things this lab was functional until just a few months ago.” Reeve told him.  
  
“When Rufus finished restructuring Shin-Ra.” Cid said, seeing the same realization he had come to dawn on Reeve’s face. “They must’ve split when the funds ran out.”  
  
“We need to see if the research records are still intact.” Reeve murmured his attention already firmly fixed on the computer he was prying secrets out of.  
  
“Yeah.” Cid grimaced. _Seven_. Fuck. He looked up across the room. The bitch-and-moan club were starting to wind down and Rufus was getting a perimeter set up around the lab to keep anything from getting in – or any _one_ from getting _out_ – Cid concluded to himself grimly as he stepped into the lab proper, bending down to peer at the mako residue that clung to the bottom of the used tubes. Still mostly liquid, though most of the glow was gone. It could not have been more than a month old, and Cid hated that he could tell just by looking. He was a mechanic damn it! He should not have ever had the need to learn shit like reading medical charts or how to deal with psychotic breakdowns on a monthly basis or be able to identify the age of distilled mako by sight alone. And more importantly, he should not have to rebuild his planes annually either! Fucking idiots had no respect for a man’s possessions.  
  
A flutter of movement, spotted out of the corner of his eye – black and silver and pale, dirty feet – halted his mental grumbling.  
  
“Well now.” Cid murmured to himself, glancing over his shoulder at his friends, who were standing around looking mopey and useless while they watched Reeve, Tseng and Elena hack the computers. Cloud shook himself out of his funk as Cid watched and started gathering up everyone without something better to do – Cid promptly looked busy with the equipment – and left to finish searching the building.  
  
‘Perfect.’ Cid smirked and casually started moving, ‘Now then, pay no attention to the man behind the glass.’  
  
Their attention firmly elsewhere, Cid’s quite departure went unnoticed by the few members of the search tem that remained in the computer lab.  
  
Once certain that he was out of sight, Cid paused to consider the strangeness of his actions. Really, would not the smart thing to do have been to alert his comrades in respects to what he had seen and gone after it together? Probably. But something – some new, familiar thing, some instinct that had been woken and strengthened by his little dip in the Lifestream a bare month ago – urged him to remain silent and follow alone.  
  
**_‘Rebirth.’_** It crooned, the word-images bare wisps of green in the back of his mind, **_‘Return from the source. A protective mantel. The fury of the storm.’_**  
  
Cid followed the soundless call of ‘ _need-protection-purpose-need_ ’ down the corridor that had been hidden from sight on the far side of the lab. He paused at a junction, looking either way before following the whispers of ‘ _fright_ ’ to the left. The hall ended with a door a few yards down. Cid eyed the lock, grunted in irritation, and had it open after a few busy moments.  
  
Cid stepped into the room beyond the door he had just forced and looked around. It was a relatively large room used for crated storage. With plenty of places to hide in – or launch an ambush from, if he was stupid enough to leave the clear area next to the door. Cid snorted and sat down on the floor, bracing his back against the wall. He put Venus Gospel down on the floor beside him and pulled a cigarette out of the pack tucked into the strap of his goggles.  
  
“Ya wanna see a trick?” Cid addressed the room at large, receiving silence as an answer. But it was a heavy silence, a listening silence. The kind of silence with attentive ears on the other side of it.  
  
“Guess not.” Cid shrugged and put the paper tube away. “Ya know… ya don’t gotta be afraid of me. I know that what the idiots back there said probably scared ya some, but I’m not gonna hurt ya.”  
  
The silence intensified, grew thicker, angry, frightened and untrusting.  
  
Cid chuckled. “Yeah, I know. Ya ain’t in the habit of trusting a complete stranger. That’s a good habit. But ya know, sometimes ya’ve just gotta take a chance on people. They might surprise ya.”  
  
Not likely. He was an intruder here. He came armed and his companions radiated hostility and pain. Not exactly a situation that would endear one to wary strangers.  
  
“No I guess not.” Cid mused out loud, hardly paying attention to what he was saying as his eyes searched the shadows for movement. “But I’m not such a bad guy, am I? I’m here alone, and didn’t tell anyone I saw ya. I’ve put down my weapon and put myself at a defensive disadvantage by sitting down. Don’t any of that get me the benefit of the doubt?”  
  
Surprise. Caution. Wary curiosity. Tentative belief. A slight shift in the shadows as a figure moved forward.  
  
“Well now.” Cid smiled without his usual spite, gaze soft and posture un-aggressive for once, welcoming. “Yer a fine lookin’ young man now ain’t ya?”  
  
Dark feathers shivered nervously as predator green eyes glowed down at Cid from the top of the highest stack of crates.  
  
“We can’t rightly have a conversation with ya way up there now can we?” Cid asked as the small figure crept further out into the dim light reaching in from the still open door. “Why don’t ya come on down here?”  
  
Hesitation, then the messy silver-haired head shook once. Cid waited patiently, passively allowing the other to come down on his own. Cautiously the Sephiroth clone edged closer and Cid clucked his tongue in dismay as he got a better look.  
  
The kid could not have been more than five or six years old, physically – Cid would have put money on the boy being part of a project started just before METEOR if he had not already gotten that information out of the computers. The boy’s wings – of which the kid had two, not a ‘one’ winged angel this one – were still mostly covered in fluffy chick down, soft and cuddly and useless for anything practical for all the boy had mantled them to make himself look bigger. Tangled silver-white hair, nearly gray with dirt and shorter than Cid was expecting, although the mats and tangles the pilot noticed were probably disguising the true length. Chances were they would have to cut the knots out in order to put some order to that mess. (Why was he even thinking about brushing the kid’s hair out anyway?) Those bright mako green cats’ eyes were exactly what Cid was expecting. The kid was filthy, hands and feet blackened with dirt and a worse-for-wear hospital gown was the only thing the kid had on.  
  
‘ ** _Protect!_** ’  
  
Huh. The little urchin was damned cute. And lucky that winter was still a few months away. Cid did not care _what_ kind of modifications the kid had, he would be dead come winter without proper clothes. The boy was already too damn skinny, Cid realized when the clone came to a stop a bare few feet away, examining Cid critically and a lot more blatantly than the pilot was examining the boy. Who was practically skeletal, the mako that the scientists had pumped into the child’s blood was probably the only thing keeping the boy going. Cid winced at the jut of bones against skin and the tight desperation around the kid’s bleak eyes. It forcibly reminded him of Vincent from before the combined efforts of Avalanche had convinced the gunman that life was worth living. (Cid was having a hard time restraining himself from scooping the kid up and carting him off to Rocket Town in order to feed him up properly.)  
  
‘ ** _Closer!_** ’  
  
Having spent the better part of the last few minutes letting the kid get comfortable being close to him, Cid figured it was time to get the ball rolling before he did something crazy. Like offer the kid a cookie.  
  
“So what’s a kid like ya doing all alone in the middle of nowhere?” Cid asked, seeking confirmation of the labs abandonment.  
  
The boy hesitated, clearly debating answering, but then he raised his eyes up to meet Cid’s gaze directly and spoke. “The scientists and the handlers left a long time ago. We waited and waited for someone to come and get us, but no one ever came back.”  
  
“So they jest ran and left ya here?” Cid asked, filing away the use of the plural ‘we’ for later, then not really waiting for an answer. “Chicken shit cowards.”  
  
The boy blinked in response to Cid’s disgusted growl, but a small smile started to grow on the pinched, pale face.  
  
“Well kid, I’ve come fer ya.” Cid said with a firm look and a friendly grin. “Those fuckers can just forget about _ever_ getting’ ya back.”  
  
Why the hell was he so possessive all of a sudden? He had just met the kid for fuck’s sake!  
  
The boy smiled shyly as he leaned towards Cid, eyes lighting up with something close to hope. “Really? You want to keep us?”  
  
“Damn straight.” Cid grumbled, already drafting plans for schooling and meals. “Kids need a good home, and ya don’t deserve to be left alone in a fucked up place like this.”  
  
The kid looked at Cid with wide eyes, the desperate longing in them almost physically painful for Cid to see. Damn. Cid could not even put up a token resistance to the impulsive decision – there was no doubt in his mind – he was going to do this. He was going to take care of the kid, Sephiroth clone or not.  
  
“My name’s Captain Cid Highwind kiddo.” Cid said, sticking out his hand and resolutely ignoring the way the kid flinched back as if he expected to be grabbed – or hit. “Nice ta meet ya. Ya got a name?”  
  
“Riku.” The boy –Riku – looked from Cid’s outstretched hand to the pilot’s open, honest face before slowly reaching for Cid’s hand. Looking unsure of the strange action but willing to go along with it. “My name is Riku.”  
  
Riku’s hand slid into Cid’s.  
  
And the storage room was blown away in an explosion of green light.  
  
=/=

Cid cursed as he curled around Riku, trying to protect the child from the too-easily recognized tearing green rush of the Lifestream. If he lost hold of the boy now there was no telling if Riku was Sephiroth enough to survive – or if Jenova was lurking out there waiting for a chance to grab a new puppet – or that he would be able to keep his mind intact. Just look at Cloud – the kid was a natural head case and his habit of swimming in the Lifestream every chance he got probably did not help any with the being not-crazy. Cid did not need to be a genius to add one and one to make two, but it helped.  
  
**_‘Purpose. Cauterization. Excision of infected flesh.’_**  
  
The green tried to rip Riku away – Cid could hear the boy’s high, panicked screaming, could feel the frantic clutch of small hands and grimly maintained his grip on the boy.  
  
_“No!”_ Cid said – thought – roared. “ _He’s just a boy! Leave him alone, ya can’t blame him for what Hojo did to him!”_  
  
**_‘Purge. Rebirth. Determination. Will to survive.”_**  
  
The pull increased and Cid almost lost his hold, but his grip held, it held and Cid roared again, railing against the collective voice of the Planet.  
  
_“NO!”_  
  
There was an impression of confusion. What could he do? He was but one against the all.  
  
_“I am the GODDAMN Captain Cid **fucking** Highwind! And the kid **stays with me!** ”_  
  
The Planet pulled harder, Cid raged louder, and something ancient, buried under the immense weight of a millennia stirred and woke from its long, once-final sleep.  
  
Curiosity. Something curled serpentine around Cid and the child he protected, scale-armoured hide shielding them from the Lifestream. Cid had the impression of being looked over by a giant presence, a pleased sounding hum lighting up the area around him. Razor-edged wings flared wide, reaching out to catch the sky and ride the wind. Fierce, defiant brightness leapt up, away, lit the shadows with a roar of flame and the crack of lightning. A hot wind moved through Cid and the child in his arms and just like that Cid knew what he had to do.  
  
Cid changed his grip.  
  
The Lifestream surged forward, tearing Jenova-taint away, gleefully bearing it off in a wash of destructive intent. The multi-presence wrapped around Cid like a friendly boa cooed approval as he patched up the holes left behind by Jenova’s removal with bits of both himself and pieces of their unexpected help. When the last gap had been patched, Cid pulled back a little.  
  
_“Done.”_ Cid sighed, exhausted and aching, feeling hollowed out and simultaneously like his skin was a size too small. “ _Now what?”_  
  
**_Crack the shell! Rebirth! Wind under wings. Fur feathers scales skin! Live!_**  
  
Cid blinked at the intense images and was crouched on the floor of the storage room, the cement hard and cold under his knees. Riku was a warm bundle, tucked safe and secure in his arms. Cid looked down at the kid when the boy stirred, green eyes blinking open to gaze up at Cid.  
  
“It’s _quiet_.” Riku breathed in wonder. “You made them stop and you didn’t let me go.”  
  
“Yer welcome?” Cid said, bemused, and wondering what else he could possibly say to that. “Ah well, let’s get a move on kid.”  
  
Cid levered himself up onto his feet and walked out of the storeroom with Riku clinging determinedly to his hand.  
  
=/=

It did not take Cid long to find an unused office in which to sequester himself away with Riku. The kid was not exactly chatty, but he was willing to talk to Cid at least. Cid took shameless advantage of the kid’s reaction to whatever the fuck it was the Lifestream just pulled and did some information gathering.  
  
“So what was this place used fer anyway, kid?” Cid fiddled with his cell phone and watched Riku out of the corner of his eye.  
  
“Professor Hojo called us, um.” Riku’s eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he quoted from memory. “ _Curiosities and fanciful long shots._ ”  
  
“Did ya see a lotta Hojo?” Cid asked cautiously, stomping down on the sharp pangs of worry and anger Hojo’s name always elicited.  
  
“Nah.” Riku jumped up onto the dust covered desk and grinned when he met Cid’s gaze. “We were too little I think.”  
  
“Gotcha. Gimmie a minute, would ya, kiddo?” Cid fired off a text to Shera and Junior demanding one of them get the airship fired up and the other to bring him a load of blankets and at least eight of their smallest jumpsuits from the ship stores. A mass text to the rest of the crew has them ready to go on Cid’s word. Satisfied, Cid put away the phone, hoping that was enough to calm the faint prickles of paranoia that worried at the edge of him mind.  
  
/.../  
  
Reno frowned, pulling out his PHP as it buzzed, at his side, Rude was doing the same thing with less theatrics.  
  
“Yo, Boss!” Reno called out, making both Tseng and Rufus turn to look at the red haired Turk. “Highwind’s up to somethin’, yo. He just sent a ‘heads up’ to his whole crew and word is Shera’s headin’ this way with clothes and shit on Captain’s orders.”  
  
“Find Highwind!” Rufus snapped without needing to think about it. “Now!”  
  
Sitting forgotten over the computer keyboard, Reeve’s eyes widened in panic. ‘ _Cid, what on the Planet are you up to? Damn it, I need to warn Cloud and the others.’_  
  
/.../  
  
Cid jumped with a curse as the door slammed open, Venus Gospel appearing in his hand on instinct. Riku bolted for the back wall, hiding behind the desk he had been sitting on a moment before. Cid lowered his spear with a disgusted sigh when he saw Cloud lead Tifa and Vincent into the room.  
  
“Bahamut’s Fangs, Spiky! Can’t ya just knock on doors like a normal person fer once?” Cid snorted as he gestured to the door which had been ripped from its hinges and was now lying on the floor between them. “Or have ya got some door-related trauma in that dark tragic past of yers that ya ain’t shared with the rest of the class?”  
  
“This isn’t the time for jokes, Cid!” Cloud snapped defensively, firming his grip on First Tsurugi. “We know that you’ve found one of the clones. We need to get rid of it now, before it becomes a danger!”  
  
“Do we now?” Cid asked casually, shoving his one hand into his pocket as he leaned back against the desk, Venus Gospel resting unconcerned against the opposite shoulder. “Are ya so sure that danger is coming?”  
  
“Hojo made it!” Tifa shouted, hysteria in her eyes as she set he jaw and clenched her fists. “Hojo made it from Sephiroth, from Jenova! All of them were nothing better than monsters and the best thing for the Planet is to wipe out every last trace of them!”  
  
Cid hid a wince as Vincent’s eyes flinched for the briefest moment. _‘Ouch, Tifa. Those are some harsh words for Vince ta hear about his lover’s son. Damn. How am I supposed ta salvage this situation? Ah well, traditional method it is.’_  
  
“Calm the fuck down, woman!” Cid roared back, straightening up from his slouch to square his shoulders. “No wonder ya turned inta a terrorist with thinking like that! Surprised ya ain’t killed poor Spikey in his sleep, seeing as fucking Hojo made him too!”  
  
“Hey!” Tifa’s feeble protest went unacknowledged.  
  
Cid just kept right on talking, even as Tifa seemed to shrink in on herself, looking stricken and guilty. Something of what Cid was saying seemed to be striking a chord in her. Cloud was wearing the blank, wounded expression Cid had privately labelled ‘kicked-chocobo in the rain’.  
  
“Ya know, I just had another thought.” Cid exclaimed with vicious determination. “Ya should kill off Vincent and Red too! They was part of Hojo’s experiments. Can’t forget them Soldier’s that are still hanging around or Denzel neither! The kid’s eyes jest ain’t been right since he got over the Geostigma. Ain’t that right, Tifa?”  
  
Cloud and Vincent were watching the exchange with wide eyes. Cid had never gone after his friends with his words like this before, with the intent to break them down. His friends had never pushed Cid to a line he would not cross before either, though. Understanding dawned as they saw Tifa flinch and refuse to meet Cid’s eyes. The girl had always been painfully transparent, especially to people who had survived working for Shin-Ra. It did not make her evil, but Tifa was at her core a small town girl with a shit-ton of emotional trauma who had never really had the chance to get over it and had in turn never lost her black-and-white view of the world. Plus, she could carry a grudge for almost as long as Cid himself could.  
  
“Stop it!” Tifa said, face red and eyes bright with gathering tears. “How can you say that? It isn’t their fault! It’s Hojo and Jenova’s fault! Cloud is their victim, but Sephiroth knew what he was doing when he killed my farther and burned my home to the ground!”  
  
“Did he really?” Cid asked her – asked all three of them – and watched the doubt take root in their thoughts. He was asking questions they had deliberately never considered before, or else the guilt may well have destroyed them before Meteor could. “Or had Jenova’s infection and a lifetime of torture and isolation already broken him? How would ya know if it were really Sephiroth? Ya didn’t know the guy.”  
  
No one could refute that statement.  
  
“But-!” Tifa cried out in denial, looking torn.  
  
“ _You aren’t the Sephiroth I once knew._ ” Cloud said softly in a voice that was not his own, looking up at his comrades with a thoughtful expression. “That’s what Zack said to Sephiroth when we caught up to his that night in the reactor.”  
  
“This Zack guy would know, right?” Cid asked calmly, deciding there and then not to call attention to the sometimes questionable reliability of Cloud’s memories.  
  
“Yeah.” Cloud said, blinking bright eyes as a painfully bittersweet smile lifted his lips for a moment. “He was the General’s best friend as well as being his Second in Command. No one could claim to know the General better and... no one else ever made the General smile like Zack did.”  
  
Tifa looked like she had swallowed something sour, but Vincent looked touched. _‘Aw, that just about made his day.’_ Cid noted with a private grin.  
  
“Well that’s that then.” Cid stated with patently false brightness, clapping his hands together like a preschool teacher trying to excite bored toddlers. “I’ll introduce ya’ll ta my new friend, but ya’ll better be nice because he’s kinda shy.”  
  
“Alright, Cid.” Cloud said after a moment, finally letting the tip of his sword drop. “We’ll play this your way for now, but if it shows any sign of going bad we’re taking care of it then, before it’s too late. No arguments.”  
  
“Whatever makes it easier fer ya ta sleep at night, Spikey.” Cid said with a shrug and turned his back on the kid’s pinched expression. Maybe now was not the best time to be reminding Cloud that Cid was his own boss, but well. The brat tried too hard to be a ‘leader’. Cid knew he was no leader. Cid just had a significant number of people who had taken a liking to following him around and doing as he told them. That just went and proved how fucked-up crazy the planet was.  
  
“It’s alright now, kiddo. Ain’t no one here gonna hurt ya.” Cid’s voice was kind, gentle, soft like the childhood memory of a favourite blanket freshly washed and warm from drying in the sun. With his back to them, Cid missed out on the comically shocked looks of disbelief his teammates pulled at the comforting tone. Riku showed no such surprise as he crawled out of hiding to crouch warily on top of the bare desk, eyeing the three adults behind Cid with untrusting intensity.  
  
Tifa sucked in a harsh breath and Cid grinned to himself when the battle-ready stances of his friends relaxed as they shifted in surprise at the sight of Riku. A wide-eyed half-starved five-year-old was not what they expected to see when they spoke of Sephiroth clones.  
  
“Right then, this is Riku.” Cid said with amused blandness, motioning to the silver-haired child beside him. “Riku, these boneheads are friends of mine and have promised not ta hurt ya, so ya don’t gotta be scared of them, okay?”  
  
“Um, hello, Riku.” Tifa tried a tentative smile, but the expression faltered when the boy scowled at her and edged further behind Cid. A boy, Tifa recalled with a guilty wince, whose death she had demanded just minutes before. It was really no wonder that the child – who, she had to admit, was utterly adorable for a miniature Sephiroth – was peering at them warily over Cid’s shoulder with suspicious eyes. Those eyes, those green, green mako lit demon eyes that reminded her of flame and screams and blood in the night. He looked at her with Sephiroth’s eyes and all she could see was Cloud and Denzel, watching here like she was something strange and other. The look of a predator trying to make up its mind about you. Tifa shivered, and wondered if Cid knew what danger he allowed at his back.  
  
Cloud was staring at Riku with a shuttered expression, the one he wore to keep the pain inside, but there was a bit of the softer look he wore around Denzel creeping out around the edges. Vincent just looked mildly interested, but Cid knew better than to trust a Turk’s face to let him know what the man was thinking. Cid would put good gil on the gunman getting soppy over how cute the brat was.  
  
No one was dead yet. Things were, in Cid’s admittedly slightly warped opinion, going rather well.  
  
Of course, that was when Barrett, Yuffie and Nanaki arrived, armed and ready for battle. Yuffie saw silver hair and green cats’ eyes and screeched, Conformer spinning out from her hand in a deadly attack. Barrett brought his gun arm up at the same time, a rapid stream of bullets aimed at the clone’s head and chest. Kill shots, each one. A left over from battling Jenova-spawn that all of them shared.  
  
Time had slowed, like those eternal seconds before a Limit Break.  
  
Cid could have easily been able to jump clear of the attacks, and his teammates knew it, just as they knew they could avoid any move Cid made to attack. A benefit of saving the world together more than once, you learned exactly how to move around the individual battle styles of the rest of the team.   
  
If Cid moved though, he would leave Riku exposed, and either attack could end up killing the kid unless he knew enough to move with Cid. If Riku froze and Cid dodged, the kid was dead, no question. Cid did not know enough about Riku’s reflexes or training to move. So Cid stood his ground.  
  
Avalanche had just enough time to realize that Cid was not moving like they expected him to, eyes going wide in horrified realization.  
  
“Cid!” Someone, all of them, screamed the warning too late. “Move!”  
  
Cid moved.  
  
The room exploded. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOOM.
> 
> There's a reason my Cid writing comes with it's own warning.


	3. Thematically appropriate magically applied character skins.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On one hand, things have calmed down now.
> 
> Oh the _other_ hand, things have gotten much, _much_ weirder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I did something.
> 
> ... I regret _nothing_.

=/=

**(Weird things are happening around AVALANCHE again.)**

There was a momentary impression of wings and fire and lightning before the explosion of magic and rage blew down the surrounding walls. Avalanche pulled themselves out of the rubble with a chorus of pained groans. That was not how Cid usually avoided an ambush.

“… Freyja’s tits.” Barrett blinked the dust from his eyes and stared.

There was the usual soap-bubble fractals of a Barrier spell. That was a sight they had almost been expecting. Only it had been twisted awry, because there were dragons coiled along the inside curve of the Barrier. Every single one of the five stages of Bahamut hissed and snapped at the humans. Not solid, but ghostly and transparent, small enough to fit within the newly enlarged office space. Still utterly terrifying to anyone with the sense the gods gave a stunned mog.

Six steel-threaded wings arched and spread wide, feathers brushing the scorched walls and ceiling. Smoke rose and sparks fell from between viper sharp fangs as Cid lowered his arms. Gold-and-steel scales patterned the skin around where ice-blue horns emerged from his temples, the glitter extending along cheekbones and jaw line and to the tips of now-pointed ears, following the line of his throat until disappearing under the folds of a yellow scarf.

Cid blinked, eyes glowing like a Limit on the verge of Breaking, and hissed in irritation, metallic scales catching the light as a whipcord tail lashed from side to side. “What the _fuck_ did ya’ll think ya were doin’ shootin’ off like that _inside a room the size of a gods-damned closet_?”

“Uh.” Yuffie shoved aside the shattered remains of the door frame and pointed at Cid. “Did, um, did the old man touch something funky when we weren’t looking? Just asking! ‘Cause Vinnie never did much talking when he went all… rawr-I’m-a-monster.”

“What’re ya’ll yammerin’ on about now, brat?” Cid frowned, fingers shifting on Venus Gospel in a series of sharp clicks, and the pilot paused. Flexing his free hand cautiously, Cid pulled off one glove and eyed the inch long talons that had taken over the ends of his fingers with a distinctly put-upon expression. “… Well then. How th’fuck’m I supposed ta be able ta maintain ‘n engine with _this_ bullshit in the way?”

“Cid, I don’t…” Tifa shook her head in an attempt to clear the ringing from her ears. “I don’t think that’s really the… the issue here.”

“Says _ya_. Bah.” Cid tugged the glove back on and rolled his eyes. “Calm yer tits, woman. Yer actin’ like we ain’t used ta this sorta fuckery poppin’ up outta nowhere at us.”

“… The Summons-spirits are new.” Cloud noted idly, brushing dust off his pants as he stood up. “As is the fact that you’re still talking.”

Vincent nodded in agreement, edging forward until the tips of his boots were inches from the glowing dome of protective magic. “You have to admit that keeping your sanity intact after a transformation this extensive is… vanishingly unlikely, Chief. Especially given our prior experiences with the side-effects of transmutative events.”

“So? I ain’t no wiltin’ pansy. This shit ain’t nothin’.” Cid snorted and sparks fell down his front. The pilot absently patted the embers out, ignored the agast expressions being directed at him, and turned to look at the untouched desk behind him. “Ya okay there, kiddo? Didn’t scare ya too bad, did I?”

“… Wow.” Riku was staring up at Cid, eyes wide and shining with the solid beginnings of hero worship. “Can you show me how to do that?”

Various members of Avalanche made pathetic little sounds of dismay at the thought of a future containing a Cid-raised Sephiroth even as Cid laughed out loud. There was a terrifying amount of wicked glee contained in that laugh. Nothing good could come of a laugh like that.

“Sure, kiddo! Jest as soon as I figger out how I did it in the first place!” Cid ruffled Riku’s hair and somehow used that same movement to scoop the kid up into his arms. The pilot turned, paused, and gave the glowing semi-transparent dragon Summons a considering look. “… I’m willin’ ta accept ideas from the peanut gallery on how ta turn this shit off.”

Cloud let his head sink into his hands as Vincent lifted an incredulous eyebrow. Nanaki shook out his mane and tilted his head in curiosity. “I don’t suppose waiting for it to fade on its own is an option available to us?”

“Don’t think so.” Cid looked torn between irritation and amusement. “I’m gettin’ the feelin’ I could keep this up fer a good long while.”

There was silence for a moment, then Vincent sighed and pushed his left arm out in front of him. The brass claw sank into the magic saturated air, sending out ripples like a heat mirage. Neo Bahamut twisted to sniff at Vincent’s hand, overlapping red wings spread in butterfly-beats. When nothing else happened Vincent stepped fully forward, walking towards the changed form of his friend and the child made in the image of his one-time lover’s son.

The brush of immaterial scales was odd, like the not-quite-solid drag of cloth half catching on brambles. The air was somehow both thick and clear at once, with a shimmering, overlaying glow of magic that had no one clear source. There was heat building inside Vincent’s ribcage, a star-bright glow taking over the knot of wasted scar tissue where the Proto-Materia of CHAOS had once bided.

It was slow enough to note, for all it took place between one stride and the next. Black and brass, feathers and scales, claws and fangs, wings and horns and tail. Raven-winged Thanatos turned his bone-white mask to examine the wreckage of the room. Three-headed Cerebus padded along at Vincent’s side while the Erinyes’ serpentine flash of brassy feathers was lazy, their Fury not yet roused.

Vincent sucked in a breath that tasted of colour and magic. Cid was the wind that flew over mountains and star-metal and the protective, possessive rage of the Dragon King. Vincent was the deep shadows and spilled blood, the Fury of the one betrayed and the harsh justice of righteous vengeance. More than a mere broken Limit, this was a Power that echoed on down through the ages, carried in song and story. Powers and Names of the ancient world long relegated to myth and legend, now given new life.

“Looks like this thing is catchin’, huh?” Cid grinned as Vincent stopped in front of him, eyeing the wicked brass spines that nearly glowed against the pitch-black feathers. “Nice duds, cowboy.”

“Thanks, Chief. Now.” Vincent took a deep breath, paying close attention to the surge of magic through his system. “This feels like… a Limit Break, but also a Summon. Something between the two, an entirely new branch of magic…”

“Or an old one.” Cid rolled his shoulders, six wings flexing in a deliberate pattern. “A’right. So, we know the triggers fer Limits and Summons, so mebbe… try doin’ it backwards.”

“Backwards?” Vincent blinked and his brow furrowed. That would be harder to do that it sounded. Limit Breaks and Summons… activating them was a bit like throwing the first stone in a landslide. Once the process started you got out of the way until they finished running their course. Doing that _backwards_ seemed… improbable.

“Compression, rather’n combustion.” Cid nodded and gripped Vincent’s arm. The magic snapped into place between them like a closed circuit. “Jest follow along, Vince. Ya jest gotta fold it down… yeah. Like that.”

The spectral images faded away, the Barrier collapsing in a harmless shower of glittering sparks. Cid was wholly human in appearance again, and so was Vincent. The boy in Cid’s arms looked between the two men with a frown. The fluffy wings on Riku’s back folded down and faded away, only a few loose bits of down floating to the debris-covered floor.

The child looked immensely pleased with himself.

Barrett scratched his beard, looking around at the destroyed walls and half-collapsed ceiling and how Vincent was all up in Cid’s space despite the little boy sandwiched between them, and huffed, resigned and longsuffering. He had been part of this nonsense from the beginning, after all, and it was too late to try and escape now. “I’m gettin’ too old for this shit.”

=/=

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Barrett, for a crazy, gun-happy eco-terrorist with chronic depression he tends to share the position of the Only Sane Man with a Talking Lion-Wolf. A talking quadruped who's _actively on fire_.
> 
> That _must_ be a terribly odd feeling.
> 
> ANYWAY look at what I did I messed around with Materia Possession and how Summons work and Lifestream shenanigans. Yeah, I know it isn't all that long but it's all I've got for this story right now please be kind.
> 
> Oh well, next time we start getting into the what the Turks are doing and the rest of the Clones become a thing and it all gets hellaciously complicated. So we have that to look forward to. ♥

**Author's Note:**

> I have a hard time writing things in linear order, so yes, the sequel to this already has a few chapters written even though I'm not done this first storyline yet. Don't judge me.


End file.
